24 Pakistanis among 338 executed by Saudi Arabia in 2024

DUBAI: Saudi Arabia has put six Iranians to death for drug trafficking, the interior ministry said Wednesday, after a year in which it carried out a record number of executions, according to an AFP tally of official reports.

The six were executed in Dammam, on the Gulf coast, for having “clandestinely introduced hashish” into the kingdom, the ministry said in a statement carried by the official SPA news agency without specifying when.

Iran summoned the Saudi ambassador to hear a “strong protest” against the “unacceptable” violation of “the rules and norms of international law”, the foreign ministry in Tehran said.

Saudi Arabia carried out at least 338 executions in 2024, sharply up on the 170 recorded in 2023 and the highest number in decades, the AFP tally showed.

Convicted drug traffickers made up at least 117 of those put to death last year, the AFP tally showed.

In September, more than 30 Arab and international human rights groups denounced the “sharp increase” in executions of people convicted on drug charges.

Foreigners made up 129 of the 338 people executed in 2024, another record.

They included 25 Yemenis, 24 Pakistanis, 17 Egyptians, 16 Syrians, 14 Nigerians, 13 Jordanians and seven Ethiopians.

In March 2022, Saudi Arabia executed 81 people in a single day for “terrorist crimes”, sparking international outrage. —AFP